Patriot League Coaches Tab Bucknell as Top Team; Team-by-Team Notes

A versatile attackman or middie for Colgate, Baum was named Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Army's dominating longstick Tim Henderson took the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.

Bucknell goes into the season with a target on their backs as they hope to defend their 2011 conference title and 2012 Preseason No. 1 spot, garnering 12 first-place votes. Army came next, snagging two-first place tallies. Colgate, Lehigh, Navy, Lafayette and Holy Cross fleshed out the rankings, respectively.

-Z.B.

1.Bucknell

Check back Friday (Jan. 27) for our preview of No. 15 Bucknell.

The Bison are coming off a season where they won a program record 14 victories overall and went undefeated in the Patriot League.

Coach Frank Fedorjaka was surprised the Bison got that many first-place votes in the Patriot League, and he knows that with the preseason honors comes expectations. “Of course it's preaseson, but we're now going to have a target on our back,” he said. “I guess that's better than the other way, so we'll embrace it.”

But judging by what he's seen in the beginning of practice, there's no letdown from last year's success, and his players are hungrier as ever. “I'm really proud of our team, how hard we've worked. We've been able to keep a chip on our shoulder, in large part due to how our NCAA game went,” he said.

“This year, I'm proud of the fact that we've picked up where we left off.”

Fedorjaka has picked off where he's left off, too. The coach has scheduled programs against many of the teams ranked 11-30, but he doesn't want to stop there and wants to take on the elite, top 10 programs in college lacrosse.

“Frankly, nobody will accept an invitation,” he said. “I've called every team ranked in the top 10 a minimum of twice each year to see if we can go there for one game on the road, and nobody's taken us on.”

But with Bucknell's NCAA Tournament performance last year — a one-goal lost to Uva — he hopes the perception around his team will change.

“In the past if you lose to Bucknell it kills your season, and if you beat us it's no big deal. I think now, at least with our schedule and where we've been ranked, we're probably more of a helpful team to play,” he said. “We're one of those teams taht's really hard to prepare for because of all the ways we ride and clear and play defense, so it's kind of little bit irritating to play us.”

Last year's success has made Bucknell one of the more talked about programs during the offseason, and that has helped the team take another step forward in recruiting, Fedorjaka said. “We haven't had to find as many diamonds in the rough in the last seven or eight months.”

The strength of this year's team will be on attack, with Billy Eisenreich moving down, Todd Heritage and Chase Bailey.

“Having us as No. 2 was kind of shocking to me, given all that we have lost, but nonetheless the preseason polls are just that, preseason,” he said.

But Alberici has a group of people “expanding their roles,” which leaves hope for the Black Knights.

“I do like our team. I think our seniors have done a great job stepping forward and increasing their roles,” he said. “Obviously, we've lost a lot. I'm not sure there's another team that's lost as much as we did.”

Tim Henderson has “improved in every area,” and Alberici thinks “his best season awaits him.” Alberici points to Devin Lynch, Garrett Thul and Conor Hayes as other keys, but the success or failure of this team might depend on Zach Palmieri in goal.

And there is little margin for error in the Patriot League. Alberici pointed out an interesting stat: For the seniors at Army, 19 of their 22 Patriot League games have been decided by three goals or less.

-M.K.

3. Colgate

Though Mike Murphy may be familiar with the Patriot League from his eight years on Army's sideline, the adjustment from a large service academy to a small liberal arts school had some unexpected cultural issues.

Murphy spoke of going into his first faculty meeting, and instead of seeing teachers in full uniform and bearing titles like Colonel, he found himself amongst denim-clad, beard-wearing professors familiar in different disciplines.

Another adjustment has been to the scheduling issues presented by a small liberal arts college. At West Point, with the importance given to athletics in the entire academy experience, the day is structured so that players have a designated time for practice with no conflicts. This is not the case at Colgate, where the students are held to similarly lofty academic standards, but the day is not structured quite the same. Besides needing to fulfill demanding schedules, the school's small size limits the amount of classes offered, meaning few blow off classes, and not many scheduling options so players can avoid practice conflicts.

“That's been a patience thing for me to understand the animal that is Colgate,” Murphy said. But he says the support from the school and faculty have been great, and his players are successfully balancing their lacrosse and academic lives.

Coaching alongside such highly regarded peers, Murphy has seen what it takes to build a successful program.

“Everything that I have here and that I employ to my guys here at Colgate is a product of what I learned from Joe Alberici and Jack Emmer [at Army], and even Mike Caravana at Denison,” Murphy said. “If I can be half the coach that those three men [are]...I think we'll be a successful staff.”

Asked what he hopes to build this program into, Murphy praised former coach Jim Nagle for the great pieces left to build from. Alluding to his former home's tradition of success,
“I'd like to be Army North if we could,” Murphy said.

“I think one of the things I've been the most impressed with is I said to the group of guys, 'you just can't dip a toe in, you've got to be dedicated in all the things we do on and off the field.” -Z.B.

No. 4 Lehigh

When Kevin Cassese took over the Mountain Hawks in 2008, many in the league saw a young man working hard to build a true program that could maintain a legacy of success. After making the Patriot League Tournament for the first time, it seems those plans are starting to come to fruition in 2012.

“It's kind of a unique team. Five years it's taken to see some veterans turn out here,” Cassese said. “I think the guys are realizing that we achieved one of our main goals last year of getting to the Patriot League Tournament, however they certainly have a bad taste in their mouthes from how that went down.”

Part of how Cassese has raised the competitive level of his program is challenging them with a difficult schedule. As Cassese puts it, he tries to break it into two different seasons. Besides scrimmaging Mt. St. Mary's, Drexel and Rutgers, from Feb. 11 through March 11, the Hawks play seven-straight nonconference opponents, including Top 20 teams like Villanova, Penn, North Carolina and Yale. Then, besides one contest with Penn State on March 20, Lehigh plays their five league opponents, and hopefully the conference tournament.

“The plan here is to challenge ourselves and to put ourselves in tough spots,” Cassese said, “but hopefully allow us to learn a lot and build some confidence as we get into our Patriot League schedule.”

Improving his team through more intense offseason work and a more grueling schedule seems like savvy moves for a young coach, but Cassese is just keeping pace with is league bretheren.

“This is a league of really talented coaches,” Cassese said. “It's certainly made me a better coach.”

-Z.B.

No. 5 United States Naval Academy

Taking over a new program is old hat for Rick Sowell, though very little on any coach's resume can prepare him for a program like Navy. Sowell helped start the lacrosse program at St. John's, having come to Queens from Dartmouth. He then left the Red Storm to move further out on Long Island and lead Stony Brook. Two years removed from the Seawolves' most successful season ever, Sowell takes over a Navy team hungry to return to winning ways.

“They want more, and I have no problem with that. I knew what I was getting into with expectations, and I'm excited about that,” Sowell said on the Patriot League conference call this morning. “I supposed it makes it more motivating to want to be successful because we have great support out there.”

It is a daunting challenge, but an enjoyable one, as Sowell has been immersed in the new culture and tradition at Navy, from it's active alumni support, to the rigors and obligations of coaching servicemen.

“So far it's been an unbelievable experience for me. I'm just looking forward to starting the season and hopefully making the alumni proud,” Sowell said. “We certainly want to show up and play the game the right way, and be proud of our effort, and hope on most days that's enough to be successful.”

The Midshipmen return the majority of their contributors and bench depth from last season, which Sowell thinks is one of his team's strengths. While Navy might not have players on the caliber of Kevin Crowley and some of the other Stony Brook studs, the roster isn't as top heavy.

“That's healthy as a coach, you want competition, that's the ideal situation, to create a competitive practice environment because that will lead to big things on game days.”

So far that depth has not be stretched, as Navy has survived the fall season and early winter practice without major injury issues, beyond the usual bumps and bruises.

“We feel good; I'm knocking on wood,” Sowell said. “Hopefully it's one of those years we can come out on the lucky end, because we're going to need it.”

The Midshipmen will get an early barometer of how far along they are with their new coach as they travel to Durham this weekend to take on Duke.

“I suppose we'll find out a little bit more of what we're made of,” Sowell said.

-Z.B.

No. 6 Lafayette

Terry Mangan and the Leopards of Lafayette return after a 2011 with no wins in conference play, and the head coach describes the team as “bottom heavy,” referring to the two dozen freshman and sophomores he’ll lean on to help him get the program back on the right trajectory.During the fall, players trained on their own and Mangan and his staff worked with members of the roster individually. The team did not have a formal fallball, according to the head coach. When asked over the holiday season how the team would look in 2012, Mangan’s players didn’t really know what to expect, and he said he could agree with that.

However, Mangan implied the approach was an effort to get the team regrouped, refocused after a season that ended with a 2-11 record and no Patriot League victories.

“I don’t think you can tell the guys to forget the past,” Mangan said. “But you can use those things to your advantage. You have guys who feel like they had success here not too long ago, and that we need to get back to that. There’s an agreement here to play at that kind of level again.”

Mangan said he’s been focused on trying to get his team to understand the entire process that goes into being a successful team and how that isn’t out of the range of possibilities for an underdog like Lafayette. Three scrimmages to kick things off should help.

“I like where what we’re doing right now: focusing on being competitive, our work ethic, our toughness and developing confidence,” he said. “As the old saying goes, confidence is the key to all the locks. With such a young group, we need to have confidence in ourselves.”

Leopards players are competing for time at multiple positions, with several of the underclassmen expected to see the field and possibly even play significant roles. Mangan said Colin Serling (11G, 10A), Doug Prusoff (3, 3) and Greg Allis (7, 3) are still the leading candidates to run together on the first midfield, as he indicated in the fall. The second group will likely be filled out by a mix of upper and underclassmen, with some returning players possibly moved to midfield to make room for talented newcomers.

Though there’s youth on the Leopards’ defense too, attack is where the rookie impact could be felt the most, as Mangan expects to start two as many as two freshman and is moving returning senior Mike Galione (3, 7) to midfield. In the running to join senior Will Heffernan (6, 2) are Sonny Round, Brian Bock and Cory Scheuerle, all with their own unique skill sets.

“Those are just a few of the guys who could get thrown into the deep end of the pool,” Mangan said. “We hope they’re swimmers and not sinkers. … Those are guys who could be getting their uniforms dirty. They may make some mistakes, but they’ll make some good plays as well.”

- Casey Vock

No. 7 Holy Cross

Jim Morrissey, who was named Holy Cross's head coach in late April 2011, knows that his Crusaders will have plenty to work on throughout the 2012 campaign, but he expressed his excitement about kicking off the season and seeing where he can take the program after a 2-11 finish in 2011.

“I'm definitely honored to be part of this great league,” said Morrissey, a two-time All-American at Syracuse in 1995 and 1996 who later held assistant coaching positions at his alma mater, Cornell and Hobart. Last season, he served as the Crusaders' interim head coach for the final nine games of the season.

“I got a real strong taste of the Patriot League last season. There's great teams with great coaches. But I think this is a team that can compete at the highest level at some point.”

One of the first moves Morrissey made this fall was to get his players into the weight room, something he identified as separating the team from its conference peers last season.

“After our 8-3 loss to Navy, when that horn sounded, the first thing that came to my mind was that we need to hit the weight room,” he said. “There's some strong teams in this league, and (physically), we just weren't there. So Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we've been getting after it and the guys have bought into. They're training hard so hopefully that translates onto the field.”

Morrissey and his team established three primary goals in the fall. The first is to play four quarters of every contest.

“We want to give ourselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter of each game,” Morrissey said. “I've had enough of 11-2 or 13-5 losses. If we lose, we'll go down swinging.”

The second goal: the Crusaders want have a winning season. “It's a very difficult schedule, and there's a small margin for error. … We're trying to stress creating a lot of depth. To do that, we have to take it one game at a time and do it with focus and intensity.”

The third goal: Holy Cross wants to make the Patriot League tournament. “We've never had more than one win in the Patriot League. But we think we can get into that fourth spot and that's what we'll be trying to do this season.”

As he makes his way through his first season at the helm, Morrissey will be assisted by a fellow former Orange standout in Thomas Guadagnolo, who was hired by Holy Cross right after wrapping up a solid career at Syracuse.

His youth, his knowledge and passion of the game and his own personal success could help instill confidence in the minds of the Crusaders.

“Thomas has been a great addition,” Morrissey said. “He comes off of playing Division I at the highest level. It's all fresh in his mind, and sometimes I wish I could throw pads on him and let him get out there and show the guys how it's done. He's into it and has a good lacrosse mind from learning from the Syracuse coaches. He even questions me at times. He's not afraid to speak up, which is great. He's mature and the guys respect him.”